Re: Exponents and Scientific Notation

hi zee-f

yes that is correct,but try to get a power of ten in the numerator.

Here lies the reader who will never open this book. He is forever dead.Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and PunishmentThe knowledge of some things as a function of age is a delta function.

Re: Exponents and Scientific Notation

hi zee-f

that is correct.

Here lies the reader who will never open this book. He is forever dead.Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and PunishmentThe knowledge of some things as a function of age is a delta function.

Re: Exponents and Scientific Notation

hi zee-f

The two diagrams OVERLAP at units. If you print them both and cut then them out you'll have two strips; the large numbers are on the left. This strip goes from units, through tens, hundreds all the way up to thousand millions. I had to stop there because I wanted something I could print for my students that would fit on a page.

The second strip starts at units and goes smaller as you go rightwards, down to the fraction 1 over a thousand million (0.000000001). The '1' is in the thousand millionth column.

You can join the strips to make one long strip by overlapping the units column and sticking them together. At the join the columns should go ......... hundreds, tens, units (ONCE!), then tenths, hundredths .........

Does this make sense so far?

edit: While I was typing that I see you've jumped ahead and got the answer. Well done. But you didn't need to go via 2/5.

Go back to 400/1000 = 4/10.

Look at diagram two. Put a '4' in the tenths column and you can see the right power is 10 to the -1. So you get to

So using the diagrams you can get straight to the right answer.

Bob

Last edited by bob bundy (2011-07-06 04:43:32)

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself..........Galileo Galilei

Re: Exponents and Scientific Notation

hi zee-f

that is incorrect.how did you get that answer?

Here lies the reader who will never open this book. He is forever dead.Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and PunishmentThe knowledge of some things as a function of age is a delta function.